new from above/ground press: Voices from Planet X ~ speculative verse from the THOTJBAP series, by Renée Sarojini Saklikar

Voices from Planet X
~ speculative verse from the THOTJBAP series 
Renée Sarojini Saklikar
$6

The Weather 

Northeast winds stripped bare branches; 
great limbs felled, fir to oak, linden to strange
hybrids, contraband imports 
           Ficus benghalensis whispered
indentured migrants, reserve army of labour
sold to work the edges of Perimeter
Winter Portal damaged: change a whipsaw,
once gaping wide, now, minuscule, 
then again huge, blasted, ice pellets strewn
snow banks eight fathoms deep, lakes and rivers, 
temperatures below, below, below, then sudden
change to above, ice cracks, ferocious bellows, 
chunks gaping, the roar of ice water, jade green
liquid pushing slabs below. Toss, tumble unseen.

We, shipped in, transported, rendered, contracted
we to work the change, supply lines jammed;
rumble-shake, quiet, quiet, rumble shake—
change, a portal, now minuscule; then snap!
Gaping wide, below, below,  core splitting fissures
above, the sky, thinned, ozone wearing off
           earth, shrugging us off:
temperatures below, below, below, then above,
once gaping wide, now, minuscule, earth’s push,
pulled, pulling against the ice fast melting— 

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
September 2025
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Renée Sarojini Saklikar is the author of five books, including the award-winning Children of Air India and Listening to the Bees. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in literary magazines and anthologies, including Exile Editions, Chatelaine, The Capilano Review, and Pulp Literature. She was Poet Laureate for the City of Surrey (2015-2018), co-founded Lunch Poems at SFU, and teaches Creative Writing at Douglas College. Bramah’s Discovery is the third volume of her epic fantasy in verse series, THOTJBAP. She lives in East Vancouver. 

This is Saklikar’s third above/ground press poetry title, after After the Battle of Kingsway, the bees— (2016; second printing, 2019) and from The Book of Bramah (2019).

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